Monday, December 8, 2014

Week 26: Well...It's still cold outside and this week I finish lap one‏

Hello Family and friends,

Salutations from the wintry wonderland that is Korea. It is
cold here. Weird. I kind of miss green grass Christmas, though let's be real:
white Christmas is beautiful. I decided that I really actually like snow. It is
like a pretty, magical version of rain. This week we had snow six out of seven
days and falling snow is cold, crazy awesome. Thank goodness for scarves and
other warm things. The downside with Korean snow is that you can't eat it. The
weather is dramatically affected by China and because China is a pollution
producing machine we have acid rain...or in this case snow. Stinkin'
China.....communists :/

This week has been terrific! Highlight was our Mission Tour
with Elder Aoyagi from the 2nd Quorum of the 70. He is fantastic; probably one
of my favorite Japanese people. (Though arguably I don't know a lot of Japanese
people. Love him anyway.) Let me tell you: we have an amazing worldwide church.
Elder Aoyagi is fluent in English but decided last minute to deliver his talk
to us in his native Japanese. Wow. I think he was affected by General
Conference. He had a translator that translated from Japanese to Korean and
then one of the APs translated the Korean to English for all who were
interested. I was interested. I understood most all of the Korean (fist pump
for 2nd languages) but let's be real, it is way easier to take notes when you
don't translate everything in your head first.

As mentioned in my
heading, this week marks the end of lap one. I compared the mission to a 1600
meter race. There are four laps. Each one is critical and presents its own
challenges but the point is to run every lap to the max so that I can run a sub
4 min mile. (Shout out to my main man Roger Banister.) The race will qualify me
for bigger and better races to come but it is a kind of qualifier, and my
placement in the next races is dependent on my performance now. Yeah...I get
pretty into sports metaphors. The football one is a little harder to follow
though so I will save it for later. The point is that this week marks six
months as a missionary! WOW! how did that happen? I am a greenie no more. Next
week also begins transfer 4 in Korea. I am excited for the Christmas party. I
have no idea what will happen but it just sounds nice.

2.0

I am extremely low on time but I have been thinking about
Christmas recently. Remember that the purpose of Christmas is Love. It is love
for the Savior and love for each other. Love is what makes the world go round
and is the only thing that heals hearts and changes lives for the better. Live
with more love. What can you give to Christ for Christmas? Ask yourself that
but in a non rhetorical way. Answer the question, wrap it up, and change. I
love you all and Wish you a very merry holiday.